Reading, Reading and More Reading

We are doing alot of reading and critical reading for class lately. Although there are no specific outside texts that I use when I think about critical reading and critical analysis, but I took to heart something that our professor said at the beginning of the class. 

Prior to taking this class I was being very specific and targeted in my approach to reading texts that might provide support for my area of interest, Virtual Reality and Spaced Practice for Refinery Technicians. Earlier in the class our professional mentioned that we as students might read a dozen articles that might not have much meaning to us specifically, but will most likely lead to other texts and other articles that will be more meaningful. 

Reading, Reading and More Reading

We are doing alot of reading and critical reading for class lately. Although there are no specific outside texts that I use when I think about critical reading and critical analysis, but I took to heart something that our professor said at the beginning of the class. 

Prior to taking this class I was being very specific and targeted in my approach to reading texts that might provide support for my area of interest, Virtual Reality and Spaced Practice for Refinery Technicians. Earlier in the class our professional mentioned that we as students might read a dozen articles that might not have much meaning to us specifically, but will most likely lead to other texts and other articles that will be more meaningful. 

I had already started to do this, but hearing from our professor about how full my funnel might need to be to have an output that is worthwhile, certainly helped me realize that my method had merit and credence. One thing I also started to do before the holidays was begin to read dissertations that I could find online that had similar subjects, then see how those dissertations used articles and foundational texts to make their points. Has anything concrete come from that reading? Not yet, but I'm broadening my scope and seeing more of the landscape in front of me. 

Additionally, I find that I don't give up on articles as quickly since hearing from our professor about how much reading will go into this process. Hearing that provided some aspect of carte blanche to continue reading more and to delve into articles not for the main points and presentation fo the thesis, but rather to determine how they frame their arguments, and what resources they use to create their arguments and bolster their analysis. 

A Few More that Caught My Eye

 I saw a few more to add to this list of great lines et al.

This one comes from my North Connection again, but via Sassy 'n Shit (a moniker I think is awesome). 

Your heart is the hardest thing to convince when it's time to let someone go.

Which Perspective is Right?

A colleague asked whether or not any instructors prefers different learning styles that what they have to teach.

Due to the demands and safety strictures of the petrochemical and oil refining industry, we are forced to provide our new employee process safety training via a transmission centered perspective. We have about one hundred new employees to the industry each day go through this course and not only is using the transmission perspective the easiest way to provide the training, but it's a mandate by the governing authority. 

We also provide eLearning training, . . . CBT or computer-based training, for hundred of employees a day. Again, we have to use the transmission perspective due to the nature of the training, the delivery mechanism, but also the expectations of the learner and the training provider. 

Your question was "do any of us have to train using one perspective but feel more comfortable with another." This is very much the case with me. As I said, we are forced to use transmission for the lion's share of our training delivery. I however enjoy apprenticeship, developmental, and nurturing perspective more. I find myself gravitating to our senior leadership classes to help with the facilitation of those pieces of training, or working with my eLearning development team to work with that team and help them with training development. I also enjoy helping the younger trainers learn more about the craft of training through apprenticeship and instruction. 

I'm at a point in my career and life where perspectives other than transmission are far more relevant and appealing to me, but our primary training delivery is the transmission. I very much find myself looking for ways in which I can eschew transmission for opportunities that allow for other perspectives. 

My Dissertation Question

Lately I've been working more and more on my dissertation question and starting to write the dissertation itself. Just like writing a novel, it's tough to get started. 

The image here shows a model of what I'm hoping to investigate in my dissertation. To put it into a sentence or a research question it would be:

What technology aid/tool is most beneficial to our learning community when applied to the standard CBT offering, virtual reality (VR) exercises, interactive games, or spaced practice.

One of the features I wanted to be sure to include in my dissertation is a focus on our learning community. We have a typically underserved learning group. Field technicians for industrial work do not typically have the most cutting edge training in our society. For example, when I was working for a contracting company I developed and wrote a series of manuals for working with our large heavy machinery. One of the tools that I used to help develop this program was McDonald's training manuals. 

McDonald's has a series of training manuals that are extremely well developed and effective. This is for their line workers and fry cooks. I'm not saying they shouldn't have great training, or that ours should have been as good as theirs, but what concerned me was that our training was for vacuuming up gasoline and flammable products in refineries while theirs was for flipping hamburgers effectively. Our training was far from the level it needed to be at. Think about it, a "whopper-flopper" was potentially getting more advanced and more effective training than a technician who was working with hazardous and flammable liquids and materials. 

My dissertation (at this point) will be focused on not completely remaking our training dynamic. We have a library of over 5000 courses and a delivery mechanism that is extremely robust. If we are going to tweak that through some different tools, which tool is the best for our learning community. 

Already we've looked into VR (see here). We offer VR exercises as a part of one of our primary courses and are about to include a second. We've already analyzed this against the standard and have seen a greater than 10% better long term memory development for the learners. 

How would gamification work? Would it be better for our technicians or worse? 

Spaced practice reinforcement is usually extremely effective for developing long-term memory, is that true in this case as well?

I look forward to delving into this and finding out more. This is the first in the series of dissertation, so stay tuned for more. 

Another Great One (or Two)

As anyone who reads this blog will know, I love reposting content that hits me deeply in my soul from a Twitter user I follow (see more HERE)

Today's are poignant and powerful as well.

First from Skywatcher is this one on ghosts:

Some people, although living and breathing, must remain ghosts, unreachable, by their own choosing. 

Critical Synopsis and Methodology

I was asked by my colleague David about two things, first was my intent in my dissertation regarding research methods, and about a critical synopsis method we are reading about for class. 

Personally, I've been so waiting to dig into this discussion. Up until I started reading The Dissertation Journey by Roberts and Hyatt I had only thought there were two outlets in terms of which methodology to use, Quantitative or Qualitative. In our study group someone would say, "which are you picking?" and for some reason I thought there were only two to pick from and it was a binary choice! 

It was with some great relief that I read that mixed or multiple methods as a methodology for data evaluation. As I might have mentioned before I have the great benefit of having a learning community to constantly experiment on and have ready data at my fingertips. We ran a test to determine which type of elearning helps develop long term memories last year and we used a mixture of the actual raw data from the learner's integrated knowledge checks throughout the elearning, the final assessment after the elearning and a follow up assessment a week after having taken the elearning. We also had the learner answer some survey questions and our proctors interviewed each learner and asked them about the experience. 

When I was asked "quantitative or qualitative" my mind would freeze because our past experience used both and I wasn't able to immediately answer the question. Now I know that mixed method is what I should say because with the data from all those test and quizzes to compare, as well as the survey data and interviews, what I'm trying to create is analysis that is both subjective and objective. So, like I said, I should have realized there was some grey area and a non-binary choice, but for some reason I never realized it. 

Regarding Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates by Wallace and Wray, a book I'm having a particularly hard time getting through, I learned to love the Critical Synopsis Questions. I really like the fact that the Critical Synopsis Questions helped cut through the fat so to speak. So often I get lost among all the lingo and pronouncements in a scholarly article and I forget what I'm trying to learn from it. I like that these articles are all written in a similar manner, with similar standard sections, but when reading them, particularly if the article has been translated from another language, I lose track of the overarching concepts and find myself losing the thought train. I like that the Critical Synopsis Questions help refine and retune my focus on that which is important for me. Like a hand rail when walking up the stairs in the dark, it helps to remain on task and on track. 

Couple From Up North

As you all know I glommed onto a Twitter account with some terrific, and poetic content, (see more of it HERE) that every now and then I like to repost and share because some of them hit me. 

Today's was definitely a hitter. It comes from Your Devil:

I can't save you. I don't even want to. I spend and inordinate amount of energy just to be able to function in this dysfunctional world. If you can't meet me half way then we have nothing. I won't let you drown both of us.

This next one, from Jess, is simple, straightforward, and powerful as well:

Silence screams the loudest answers. 

Evershade, evershades, ever shade, ever shades, shades of Betsy

Networks through Connectivism

I am very intrigued by the idea of creating connections with our learners that extend beyond the walls of our learning community. In the past our learners would come to our facility for training then be gone, in most cases until the next year when they would have to take a refresher course. There was no constant connection. 

I think one of the things that we have working in our favor is that our learners are "primed" for this type of experience and connections. Social media platforms are helping to reinforce the feeling of connection to different communities. I have my Twitter friends where I follow folks on art and politics. Instagram is where I go to see my family and their newest pics. Canvas (both on my PC and on my phone) is where I can keep up with my adult education colleagues. Email is for work. 

I've compartmentalized each aspect of my life for the social media streams that make the most sense for me at that moment. I have been trying to convince my IT department that merely having an organization app will not be enough for us to create a connected network of learners. I've been asking for them to produce an app, a web-page, a LinkedIn group, a chat bot, etc. You never know how one person or one group of learners will want to process and access information and content. We have to give them choices and the freedom to choose that which fits best in their lives. 

It made me think about a quote from a friend, Anne about making it feel like a part of nature and their body. It should be easy, holistic, and like a part of their body, not something different or unique. 

Videos in Training

When I set up a live streaming video network in my previous position, we provided 40 Hour Hazardous Waste training for our company through a virtual training system. 40 Hour Hazwoper as it is called has very strict rules on what content is presented and the timeline for the course. That being said, OSHA, the agency that oversees the Hazwoper regulations has very few strictures on how the training is completed. Although this lack of oversight on how to present the content would lend itself to any type of teaching perspective, we used the transmission perspective to provide the content.

However, in order to help develop a better understanding of safety culture and the information we provided several videos of real-world accidents and fatalities. During the videos, we asked the trainees to provide a summary of the video and what tools they were learning about in the class could have been used to prevent the accident. This could be seen as a developmental perspective, as we were helping them use the information in new and unique ways, asking them to create original thoughts and to think creatively using the tools we had provided. 

On further reflection though, the method we used to provide the information, the manner by which we solicited the information, graded them, and reviewed the information with the class was very much in line with what we've learned about the transmission perspective.  Maybe it could best be called "transmission with a dash of developmental." 

One of the aspects that kept this transmission was the number of people we were training, the style and method of training, and the techniques used for the knowledge transfer. Although it would have been preferable to use developmental, the amount of attention and limitations on time tended to make that difficult. Secondly, and more importantly, the trainees were new to the industry, had no experience, and needed the information delivered to them in a simple, quick, efficient, and easy to digest manner. The nature of the virtual setting, 5 eight-hour days, also meant that the trainees did not have a setting that lent itself easily to the developmental perspective. 

Soulmates

 Several on soulmates today. 

I saw one that caught my eye by Jasmine. She wrote:

Soulmates always find each other. 

I agreed. Or I like to think I do. But it made This is Fine write:

Do soulmates even exist?

Yet More for Evershade

 I've been posting lately to the Ever Shades label (see here) and really it's become a holding place for all those little bon mots that I can't put anywhere else. 

The first is simple and and thoughtful and it hit me when I read it. Why not keep it here?

You cannot change them by loving them harder.

Too true. Sometimes you love them by leaving them alone. Maybe they come back. Often they don't.

Hintzman and Block and Repitition

A colleague in school wrote about regurgitating ideas or going over the same ground twice. Specifically they said, "how many ideas are out there that are similar?" 

That is something that I've struggled with for quite a while. It feels like eventually, or perhaps already, we will just start saying the same thing over and over. I read an article a few weeks back, from the 1970's by Hintzman and Block that dealt the memory strengthening through repetition verse memory resiliency through creating deeper and larger memory networks. This article showed an experiment that was similar to the one that I hope to design and study for my own dissertation, testing deliberate practice via after training spaced practice vs exercises woven into the framework of the training. It boils down to the same basic tenets of the Hintzman and Block article, strength through repetition vs multiple trace memory theory. Like you said, going over the same ground again. 

References

Hintzman, D. L., & Block, R. A. (1971). Repetition and memory: Evidence for a multiple-trace hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 88(3), 297–306. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0030907

A Long Discussion with Homar

Homar, who is here on a mission to help with COVID Vaccine roll-out and I had a long discussion about our PhD classes. We agreed that it has been amazing in the past year to see how much this new COVID environment has re-shaped our worlds. For me, it has not changed from one type of stress to another as it may have for many who have lost their jobs or find themselves working from home. In my case, our organization never closed down. 

My training organization continued to see learners all throughout the pandemic and have had to adjust and change our responses based on the new guidelines and to keep our trainees safe. For a long while each day started with a COVID Strike Team meeting that focused on how we as an organization were responding to the events of the pandemic. Thankfully, we are "almost" back to normal. Still, it has certainly changed everyone's "day-to-day" stress levels around here and how we prioritize our lives. COVID is a trump card so to speak. Everything lately has been viewed first through the lens of COVID.

Regarding your discussion introduction on plagiarism. When I first started writing papers for these classes I enjoyed quoting from experts and from articles. I am a very black and white person. I don't have a problem with reading direct quotes as long as they are assimilated well. Too often the quote changes the writing style and tone and can make for a more disjoint reading. BUT, I do enjoy having the direct quote. The more I write in class however, the more I see that framing ideas and quotes in our own words is more the accepted form of practice (perhaps I'm wrong). This is certainly an area where I have lost some sleep. One of my favorite authors when I was in high school was Stephen E. Ambrose. When he was accused of Plagiarism in 2002 for passages in The Wild Blue, I saw how his career fell on ignominy. Was it purposeful? Was it willful?  I would like to think not, but then other articles tend to show he might have done this throughout his academic career.

Regarding mastering writing and technique. I read through The Dissertation Journey prior to the start of class and now go back to check notes and re-read as necessary. I've been having trouble with refining my question or research question and writing an introduction. Re-reading last night I ran into the funnel technique described in Chapter 8. "To help you focus your introduction, first, draw a large funnel and fill it in to help you visually focus your topic. The top of the funnel begins with an introduction, a description of the general area to be studied. Next, identify a more specific problem within the general area. Say why this problem is important to study and specify what is already known about the problem. Then, specify what is not known about the problem that is important to study. Finally, state a specific purpose statement in one or two sentences followed by research questions that guide the study" (Roberts & Hyatt, p. 99). Having re-familiarized myself with this technique, it's helped me re-simplify my writing. 

References

Roberts, C. & Hyatt, L. (2019). The dissertation journey (3rd edition). Corwin Press.

Art in Leadership Training

My friend and classmate Andrew sent me a link to a wonderful video on art and  learning (see below). I am a huge fan of video to help prime the pump and start the learning process down whatever branch the mind might wander. 

As I posted before, I had trouble with this aspect of learning if only because I don't "think creatively" much, at least not in terms of teaching and learning. I think creatively in terms of process and technology innovation, but rarely in terms of learning delivery. Regardless, one of the things I thought about as I watched the TedTalk video was the role playing that we do in our leadership classes.

I've written before about my organization and the industry my organization supports. We deliver lots of eLearning and CBT's and we have "compliance driven" training which is instructor-led. There isn't as much room for artistic creativity in these areas. For more about artistic creativity, feel free to read my post above, because I think there is some room for it in our delivery. But the one area where my organization might be able to claim some "creativity" in training delivery is in our leadership training.

Our two-day leadership training for supervisors and crew leaders is very much "out of the lane" that many of our "white-truck" supervisors are used to. They come to us and expect those boring, staid CBT's and the rote, compliance-driven training. Our leadership training forces our learners out of the model. In our leadership training we use small groups and fill it with role-playing exercises. These role-playing exercises force our learner to stand up and stretch their creating muscles. We ask them to act out scenarios where they will have to be a supportive leader, a coaching leader, a hands off leader, etc. Naturally during these role plays we have to have a foil or an antagonist and that is when many of our learners really get to have fun. In your video the speaker talks about using art for "idea generation" and references the Lego movie (about 9:55) in. I see these role-playing scene as our leaders chance to be "master-builders" and come up with ideas about their lives and their leadership needs to look like. 

Before this class if anyone had said, "describe an instance at your training organization where art place a part," I doubt I would have had much to answer. Now I see where our leadership training is the perfect example of art in training and the opportunity for art to help develop learning opportunities that are outside the normal. I look forward to figuring out more about how this might effect our learners and leaders and how we might be able to make it a stronger differentiation for our training. 

Starling Lines

I got to watch a real cute movie the other day with Melissa McCarthy and Kevin Kline. It was called the "The Starling." And although there wasn't a ton to recommend it, Melissa McCarthy is so cute and fun that she can just about turn even a stinker movie into a winner. 

There was one moment though, . . . almost two, that got me.

Preparing and Managing Budgets in Program Planning

 As a part of my program planning class I had to provide a class presentation on one of the book's chapters (see here). The chapter I got was chapter 10 - budgeting and finance. Ugh. I'm the worlds worst person to ask about budgeting and finance, unless it's about personal finance, in which case I'm quite good. So that's what I focused on. 

I noticed something else, all the practice I've had in presentations is really paying off with my classes. I've done so many presentations that I can whip em out and make em worthwhile fairly easily. I got a 100% on this one, and truthfully, if you look at the samples I provided below, I really used way too much text. This is about 4 of my 15 slides. Mine are also heavy with animation so each slide is rich with depth. Others had 30 or 40 slides, mine just 15 but with more in each slide.

My style right now is very similar to a Steve Jobs Apple product launch presentation. Go check out one of those videos and you'll see that Jobs had no words on the screen, just images. This goes back to something I read about Mark Twain. apparently for his speeches he didn't' write things out so much as he drew illustrations to help remind himself what he wanted to say. 

I gave a presentation for work last month and was very concerned as I wanted for my turn because everyone before me had slide after slide of text, bullet lists, and numbers. Mine were nothing but images. My presentation went well, and afterward our meeting host, Paul, told me how impressed he was with my presentation. Cami said the same. 

Goes to show, have some faith. Enjoy and have confidence in your abilities. 

Quick Review: Grydscaen

 I'm not sure if this is the author's first novel or not, but it reads like one. There are some interesting ideas, and the writing is grammatically sound and free of errors, but there is a lot of telling the reader what's happening. 

This book and the author's writing tends to lead the reader feeling like he is outside the action just looking in, rather than an integral part of the book and the writing. There are few things better than feeling as though you, as a reader are a part of the book and the writing, and you're on a roller coaster, going up and down with the main characters, being taken away. 

The author's writing doesn't bring the reader to that place. Instead it keeps you at arm's length. I wish it was more engaging because it's smacks of Neil Ferguson's Snowcrash, a book that I loved. I look forward to more from this author, but this wasn't what I was hoping for. 

Quick Review: Grydscaen

 I'm not sure if this is the author's first novel or not, but it reads like one. There are some interesting ideas, and the writing is grammatically sound and free of errors, but there is a lot of telling the reader what's happening. 

This book and the author's writing tends to lead the reader feeling like he is outside the action just looking in, rather than an integral part of the book and the writing. There are few things better than feeling as though you, as a reader are a part of the book and the writing, and you're on a roller coaster, going up and down with the main characters, being taken away. 

The author's writing doesn't bring the reader to that place. Instead it keeps you at arm's length. I wish it was more engaging because it's smacks of Neil Ferguson's Snowcrash, a book that I loved. I look forward to more from this author, but this wasn't what I was hoping for. 

Just One This Week

 Once more in the Ever Shade label, a simple yet long one. Spoke to me. Maybe to you too.

It wasn't personal to her, but it was to him. She was like a tidal wave when he could barely tread water. He just wanted to know her, but that was too much. Still she stayed, in the back of his mind, and all he could hope for was that she truly knew he'd always be there for her.

That one hit me.

Evershade, evershades, ever shade, ever shades, shades of Betsy

Emotion in Training

Recently I got to work with my classmate and good friend Anne on an emotional intelligence program for her organization in Kansas City. Naturally it makes sense that I would take the opportunity to write a post about emotional intelligence and how our learning community deals with a learners understanding and reflecting on their emotions and accurately and getting in touch with them. The other day I wrote about Andrew and our leadership training classes. 

My organization is thinking of working in emotional intelligence into our leadership training. Our refinery, field supervisors are known for their toughness, gruffness, stick-to-it-ed-ness (sp?), gumption, capabilities, ability to complete projects but hardly for their emotional intelligence or their ability to connect with their emotions. I am afraid if I even mention the word "emotion" in any of our training our learners would mock us and run the other way.

That being said, we do delve into some emotional moments in our leadership training. Often it is in the form of the role-playing I mention above in response to Andrew. When these supervisors have to get up in front of a class and act, they are at their most vulnerable and it's easy to see. Many refuse to perform the exercises without coaxing and almost none would volunteer to go first. What's interesting is that by the end of the class many are volunteering and seem to get more out of the role-playing exercises.

I'm sure some of this is due to the chance to get one under their belt and they realize they are within a friendly audience and among friends. It might also be that they are able to relax the negative emotions they feel regarding performing in front of a crowd, that stage fright, and are able to harness that anxiety and use the energy for learning. I look forward to the next opportunity to join the class so I can watch and determine if that first role-playing exercise, where habitually the emotional walls are still quite solid, is as effective as the last. I wonder too if we provide enough investigation into helping them with their emotions. As Sousa writes on page 61, "when a curriculum concept struggles with an emotion, the emotion always wins." It would be worthwhile for me to ensure the curriculum supports the learner's emotional journey through the class and takes advantage of the emotional walls where we can, and takes advantage of the learning opportunities when those walls drop. 

Reference:

Sousa, D. A. (2017). How the brain learns (5th ed.). Corwin.

Looking Forward to Class

It was fun to read the introductions that my fellow students wrote when we started this class. Like most of them I have kiddos in the teen and pre-teen age ranges. Anyone who interacts with me would be more likely to see my 10 year old on zoom meetings than either animal. My pets eschew zoom meetings and interaction with me while I'm at my desk despite my best efforts. But the 20 year old likes to come into the background and interrupt however. 

I agree with you, I can already see where this class will help greatly with my organization. I mentioned that I'm interested in knowing more about virtual reality (VR) and Microlearning. I've been collecting dozens of relevant articles over the past few months that I hope to use when building the framework of my dissertation, but all I had been doing was putting the link, the file, a summary and the title into OneNote when it made sense in each classes learning journal. This makes it easy to find information after the fact. I can type in VR in the search and see where all those articles are located. I can type in "spatial awareness" and if that was a part of my summary than it would show up as well. 

Just organizing these into, and creating a literature review table shows me that although my OneNote style of logging information might have been useful, it lacked the ability to compare, contrast and immediately access the information. I've taken those 20 articles I've been working with and already put them into the table, and immediately I see the advantages. Seems like such an easy thing, and I'm stunned I didn't take the opportunity to do this before, but it's remarkable how the chance and the opportunity to organize the research is already showing dividends and potential benefits. School, right? Hell of a thing.

Also like most I am looking forward to the intense reading of the APA style manual. So far I've been hunting and using it only as a reference. I've been using online resources and Andrew P as a backstop against doing anything too stupid, but really knowing the nitty and the gritty of the APA style manual has not been my milieu, and worse I've always thought, "oh well, that's my weakness, I'll never know it as well as Emily seems to know it." I look forward to my future as an "Emily," someone who knows the rules of the road and applies them with ease.

Premack and Parkinson

In this week's readings in Roberts and Hyatt, I was impressed by the descriptions of Parkinson's Law and the Premack principle in the section about time-wasters. Roberts and Hyatt describe Parkinson's Law as "work expands to fill the time available for its completion" (p. 10).

This resonated with me based on some of the foundations of my work experience. In the Army, we executed missions with strict timelines. We had to be at certain objectives by certain times or other soldiers and their missions might suffer. As a proposal writer, my first job after the military, we had even stricter deadlines. If a proposal wasn't post-marked on time, or in the hands of the client on the date they set, then the proposal wasn't even considered. In college, I learned that deadlines could be adjusted, changed, or were flexible based on outside reasons. In proposal writing, I had to re-learn everything I thought I knew. Proposals have to be done on time every time. I learned to love deadlines. I also learned Parkinson's Law, our proposals were only as good as the time allotted and we shifted and moved priorities to make as much time as possible.

The Premack principle, or as Roberts and Hyatt state, "Grandma's rule, states that a high-frequency activity can be used to reinforce low-frequency behavior" (p. 10). I look at this as all other jobs that can be put off must be put off until assignments are done. The structure of the program that we are in helps me with this. Knowing that there are breaks between classes where I can have more free-time, using what I've discovered in class toward my work also helps.

The primary barriers I have for these classes and my work toward my dissertation are the same as many in these classes, work, and home life. It is easy to manage work in that as I said above so much of what I learn in my classes and so much of what I write is directly relatable to my work and business. Much of what I do is a net positive for my work.  In terms of home life, although I have two sons who need their father around, I sacrificed for our family in the past few years when she worked towards her MBA. Now, she feels compelled to help me through the Ph.D. process to the same degree that I helped her earn her MBA. The final barrier is my lack of academic understanding and comfortability. I haven't been involved in an academic class of this caliber for over fifteen years and part of the issue is finding my way back into that world. No ready-made solutions for this one, this is where hard work comes into play.

A final barrier I think I should bring up is organization. I use OneNote for much of my work. I log all of the papers I papers, the links, the downloads, etc. I make note sin OneNote so I can search for key words. I think already I've learned that OneNote may be a good tool, but I need to add an Annotated Bibliography for my reading that is far more detailed and worthwhile than that which I've already started.

References:

Roberts, C., & Hyatt, L. (2018). The dissertation journey (3rd ed.). Corwin Press.

Imposter Syndrome

My colleague Will brought up the idea of feeling like an imposter in class, or having "imposter syndrome." That was a term I was introduced to while reading Brookfield's Skillful Teacher. I remember reading about that syndrome and thinking of the number of times I've felt the same thing; joining the Army, SF Pre-Scuba School, Ranger School, Best Ranger, joining the workforce and with each successive job opportunity. There have been few experiences where I feel I am not an imposter at the beginning of the journey. And my epiphany (if it can be called that) is that the longer we spend in the process the more confident and capable we become. 

The trick I find is to shorten that learning curve and shorten the process or the duration of the imposter part of the process. The faster we can become proficient in the system the less like an imposter. I'm sure someone has graphed this in some highly technical and imaginative way. Regardless, as epiphanies go, it's hardly earth shattering, but it does play a part. I find that it's not just the classes that I take that are helping me gain a sense of correctness of being in the situation or a lack of impostership, but it's also the work that goes into the process behind the scenes. Each article I've read, every paper I write, each research idea that I dream up, takes me a step closer. So, what I've been doing is decreasing the timescale by doing more reading and more writing on my own. Before the last class we took together I found and downloaded about 20 papers on emotional connection and VR (which was my area of interest for that class) so that I could be prepared bfore the class began. I not only read the books before the class, but also found two other books on memory to review as well. The more prep I can do for each class and toward this Ph.D. process the less likely there's a feeling of impostership (like I said, hardly and epiphany).

Secondly, and this one has to deal with writing, I have written and (self) published three novels. In every instance of writing those novels I was surprised by the amount of re-writing I had to do. Each book is 90K words long and based on the reviews I get, they aren't too poorly written. Each one may have started with a 50,000 word sprint to the finish in a month long writing challenge like National Novel Writing Month puts on, but they grew from that. Throughout all of that I've found it's never the first draft that makes the final cut. That novel I was working on before starting the program, I was on the 4th iteration. I've found that writing is more about re-writing and editing than the writing itself, but given enough time and attention, like anything else, it takes shape. 

What I'm impressed by with this process we are following is that amount of support we get from fellow students and professors. In just about every case I've listed above where I was challenged, I was pretty much on my own. This is the first challenge where I've had so many support groups, and that is what I've been leaning on. Those weekly meetings (even though I haven't attended as religiously as I should have) help me through tons of challenges with more ease than I could have handled alone. If you're going to feel like an imposter, best to have other imposters around you, right?

Brookfield, S. D. (2015). The skillful teacher (3rd ed.). John Wiley & Sons.

More Ever Shades

I've fallen in love with these Ever Shade posts (see here), and really enjoy being on the lookout for new ones to post each week. Here's this weeks sample:

This first one comes by way of "austere" and she says:

Asking yourself if their feelings were real, will destroy your heart.

Silent Read

I don't think I need to say anything about these do I (much like I didn't have to say anything about these, but I did  . . . see HERE).

Just read them and enjoy them like I have. 

Avoidance will kill you in the end

                                         -M51

Quick Review: Rise from Slumber

 Whenever I review a book I try to limit it to several things, the author’s intent, the writing style, the mechanics, and the overall story. On two of these, Qatarina Wanders fails. 

If I were a tween girl I would love Rise from Slumber. This must be who it’s written for. The story is light and superficial, the characters are caricatures, and the dialogue is unbelievable. Worst of all, the story tries to be quick and substantial, but comes off as slow and superficial. 

That being said, the writing is solid. The mechanics and the style aren’t all together bad, I just wish I could give a damn about the story and the characters. The author tries to instill a sense of mystery and intrigue but fails completely enough that I had to force myself to keep turning pages. Worse? I didn’t like the main character at all. This is always the worst aspect for me. I want to involve myself in the main character’s life, I want to care. Instead I wanted nothing to do with the main character. I wanted her only to finish up quickly and move on so I could as well. And the intrigue? The mystery? I didn’t care. 

There are some good things, but for me it wasn’t enough to overcome the bad.

Quick Review: Rise from Slumber

 Whenever I review a book I try to limit it to several things, the author’s intent, the writing style, the mechanics, and the overall story. On two of these, Qatarina Wanders fails. 

If I were a tween girl I would love Rise from Slumber. This must be who it’s written for. The story is light and superficial, the characters are caricatures, and the dialogue is unbelievable. Worst of all, the story tries to be quick and substantial, but comes off as slow and superficial. 

That being said, the writing is solid. The mechanics and the style aren’t all together bad, I just wish I could give a damn about the story and the characters. The author tries to instill a sense of mystery and intrigue but fails completely enough that I had to force myself to keep turning pages. Worse? I didn’t like the main character at all. This is always the worst aspect for me. I want to involve myself in the main character’s life, I want to care. Instead I wanted nothing to do with the main character. I wanted her only to finish up quickly and move on so I could as well. And the intrigue? The mystery? I didn’t care. 

There are some good things, but for me it wasn’t enough to overcome the bad.

Quick Review: I Hate My Brother

I picked up and started to read “I Hate My Brother” for the worst possible reasons, it kept showing up in my feed and it had a disturbing cover image (two babies facing each other with weapons). I suppose there is also the fact that I have brothers. I don’t hate my brothers (at the moment) but there have been times in my past. 

Don’t worry Big Dave and Bubba, this book will not make me hate you more. The brothers in this book are people in Yugoslavia going through their civil war. Imagine Johnny Reb vs the Union Soldiers. I gave this book more leeway than I probably should have, I kept hoping for more. It failed to deliver. 

Mr. Bojcic, the author is from that country and probably from that time and place. It reads more like an autobiography and a stream of consciousness story. The mechanics of the writing need a lot of work, at least in the online version I read, which really takes away from the reading. Not a native English speaker or writer (I’m assuming) there are also a lot of grammatical mistakes that also take away from the story. The worst aspect is that I didn’t really care. The story unfolds slowly, too slowly. I kept wanting more, a reason to care. I never got it. 

But the author has an earnestness to his writing, and I suppose someone more interested in the conflict and politics in Yugoslavia might like it more than I. But for me? I didn’t need a history book. 

Quick Review: I Hate My Brother

I picked up and started to read “I Hate My Brother” for the worst possible reasons, it kept showing up in my feed and it had a disturbing cover image (two babies facing each other with weapons). I suppose there is also the fact that I have brothers. I don’t hate my brothers (at the moment) but there have been times in my past. 

Don’t worry Big Dave and Bubba, this book will not make me hate you more. The brothers in this book are people in Yugoslavia going through their civil war. Imagine Johnny Reb vs the Union Soldiers. I gave this book more leeway than I probably should have, I kept hoping for more. It failed to deliver. 

Mr. Bojcic, the author is from that country and probably from that time and place. It reads more like an autobiography and a stream of consciousness story. The mechanics of the writing need a lot of work, at least in the online version I read, which really takes away from the reading. Not a native English speaker or writer (I’m assuming) there are also a lot of grammatical mistakes that also take away from the story. The worst aspect is that I didn’t really care. The story unfolds slowly, too slowly. I kept wanting more, a reason to care. I never got it. 

But the author has an earnestness to his writing, and I suppose someone more interested in the conflict and politics in Yugoslavia might like it more than I. But for me? I didn’t need a history book. 

Fine Tuning My Topic

I was just talking to some of my fellow students, namely Will and Anne, about our dissertation topcis. They are in a similar camp to many of the other students in our classes. They are not sure what their topic will be. 

In my case, as anyone who reads this blog can see, I'm very interested in exploring how immersive virtual reality (VR) exercises can help develop long-term memory. 

My problem is the opposite of many of my colleagues. They seem to have trouble nailing down what they want to write about. I keep expanding my interests. The other day I read an article on how emotions can help inspire deeper memory by Marin-Morales et al. The article authors used heart rate monitors and fMRI monitors to determine if VR users were affected by emotions in their VR use and if it helped them retain memories. I immediately wondered if I could find a way to include that type of sensor measurements into my own areas of interest. 

Then I read another article about how multiple senses could inspire greater memory strength as well as multiple trace memory networks and whether or not the greater strength and more networks might lead to more resilient long-term memory creation. I immediately thought about putting some sort of scent dispenser into the testing room. 

I think the struggle I'm having is not getting pulled too far off course by interesting ideas, but rather finding ways to strengthen the topic I have, making it focused and pointed without being too general or mundane.

References:

Marin-Morales, J., Higuera-Trujillo, J. L., Greco, A., Guixeres, J., Llinares, C., Scilingo, E. P., Alcaniz, M., & Valenza, G. (2018) Affective computing in virtual reality: emotion recognition from brain and heartbeat dynamics using wearable sensors. Scientific Reports, 8 (13657), 1-15. 

Allcoat, D., & Mühlenen, A. von. (2018). Learning in virtual reality: Effects on performance, emotion and engagement. Research in Learning Technology, 26. https://doi.org/10.25304/rlt.v26.2140

Quick Review: Face-Off

 I spent some time today with this book. I'm a huge fan of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plub novels, and I went into this expecting that style. I don't think I got what I expected. Instead of levity this story brings seriousness and romance. The problem? The writing style would have been more aligned with comedy. 

The author uses cliches, and much of the writing tends towards over-the-top. In the first few pages the author does a good job of describing the setting, but the characters are all caricatures rather than believable, this tends to undermine the value of the writing and like I said, makes a reader expect comedy or humor. 

Although I found it fun, the writing tends to lag, and like I said, I don't think the author was going for fun, as much as they were going for hard-boiled or hard-hitting. Thankfully the mechanics of the writing were clean in that I only saw a few problems, but nothing too rough around the edges. All in all, I was disappointed that it wasn't a book that could draw me in and deliver on what I thought was promise. Back to Evanovich for me I guess.